“6 reasons destroying your practice: overeating, physical and mental overstraining, garrulity, too strict rules compliance (limiting food to fruits only or bathe in cold water only, any rule coming from mind, not confirmed by the body and awareness), instability of mind and spending long time among people who don’t share your aspiration.”

Swatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Talking about things that hinder our practice, one should carefully evaluate own obstacles. Sit for a moment and tell yourself, why you are doing yoga. Having a goal is important; we get too defocused without motivation. In Buddhism practitioners use “preliminary practices”, grounded on development of deep motivation to go ahead and practice.

Be fully aware of your goals and take a glance over your daily life, what stops you from practicing regularly. Swatmarama emphasizes common obstacles that make our practice less effective. Let’s go deeper and see what every reason means to us personally. In this post I will cover the first one, Overeating.

Read the rest of this entry »

Krishnamacharya died at the age of 101 in 1989 having taught outstanding students - Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar, T.K.V. Desikachar. Bringing us new understanding of ancient texts, he made a great influence on today’s yoga. I suggest you to pay attention to non-physical aspects of these videos, try to catch the state of mind, the force of inner fire, the light coming from Teachers.

Krishnamacharya. Watch bandhas and breathwork. Simply amazing..

Read the rest of this entry »

I see it happening very often: people come for a yoga class (actually, any class) without own motivation acknowledgement. Yes, they want to be healthier, happier, calmer, but when it comes to postures many get distracted and forget own goals.. Not all, but many don’t make any attempts to stop planning their future activities or remembering their past situations; very few practice being here and now, being aware.

We started our class yesterday with a cornerstone of daily practice.

Why are you standing here? What do you want to reach? What is your goal for today’s class?

Read the rest of this entry »

While I was browsing for free yoga videos I could share with you, I found this inspiring video by Meg (thank-you, Meg!). Wonderful postures and sound, heartening you to lay the yoga mat on the floor and turn your mind completely off, leaving pure perception..

Inspiring Video link

And yet another video I’d like to share is MyYogaOnline Hatha Yoga class. Calming voice, bright setting, light teacher.

Photo by kk

May all beings find real peace..

I first heard of Vipassana meditation practice about 4 years ago. I had no clue of Buddhism or serious meditation at that time, and decided I can simply join a course and learn. Till date, 10 days Vipassana course is unique in our country and makes the best choice to get into meditation and contemplation.

Vipassana (from Pali, “seeing reality as it is“) is very simple and very ancient. More then 2500 years ago Gautama Buddha showed Vipassana as a method to free yourself from suffering and never ending samsara chains. In October a second Vipassana Center will be opened in UK (European Long-Course Centre Dhamma Padhāna) in addition to Dhamma Dipa, overfilled with people wishing to participate.

Read the rest of this entry »